Winning or excelling in a World Cup is traditionally considered as essential to be rated as an all time great football player. That is why Pele and Diego Maradona are considered the greatest ever and a cut above legends like Alfredo Di Stefano and George Best who were also equally talented and entertaining.

Brazil and Spain are the bookmakers’ favourites for the forthcoming 19th World Cup in South Africa. But as the saying goes there is many a slip between cup and lip. Recent World Cups have shown that pre-tournament favourites can falter and teams that build momentum during the tournament, like Italy in 2006 or Brazil in 2002 are

In the 54-year-old history of the European Champions Cup, now the Uefa Champions League, only twice has the final been contested between an Italian and a German club. In both the 1983 and 1997 finals, the German clubs SV Hamburg and Borussia Dortmund were victorious beating Juventus (Italy) 1-0 and 3-1, respectively. So will

The monopolistic domination of two clubs has become a recurring feature of both the English Premier League and India’s I-League. In the EPL, for the last six years, the winners have been Chelsea (2004-05, 2005-06 and